Dental Law In Practice

This unit aims to: 

·         Provide you with a comprehensive overview of aspects of the law as they relate to dental care and practice 

·         Enable you to adopt a critical, analytical and reflective stance towards ‘dental’ law and its’ application 

·         Develop an awareness of the risk associated with legal issues and recognise how it can be managed through the dental team

Ethical Dental Practice

This unit aims to: 

- provide you with a comprehensive overview of selected ethical issues relating to the provision of high-quality dental care 

- enable you to enhance your analytical and reflective stance towards ethics and values in relation to dentistry 

- further develop awareness and anticipation of ethical dilemmas that may arise and impact upon patient care 

Law And Ethics, Concepts And Theories

This unit aims to:

·         Provide you with knowledge of fundamental concepts, principles and ideas of law and ethics;

·         Enable you to adopt a critical and analytical stance towards law and ethics and how they interlink;

Provide you with the critical skills to identify and evaluate current and future ethical and legal challenges

Regulating The Dental Teams

This unit addresses the central question of how dental practices are regulated as an organisation capable of delivery safe dental care as well as supporting the development of all members of the inter-professional team to the relevant General Dental Council (GDC) Standards.

This unit is relevant for those who manage teams and dental businesses as it explores ways to develop individuals, teams, and those within the wider organisations in which you operate. The unit pays special attention to how you can comply with different set of regulations as well as legal and ethical guidance that govern the profession. The unit also considers how to enhance team development to ensure a high quality, professional and ethical service. 

The unit has a particular focus on three of the four domains for professional practice identified by the General Dental Council, these being: communication, professionalism, management and leadership. In particular, the unit aims to explore ways in which dental care professionals work together with others ethically, collaboratively and professionally as an effective dental team.

The aims can be summarised as 

Critically exploring the concepts that shape, govern and regulate the dental teams in the context of ever changing legal and ethical frameworks and quality assurance requirements. 

Developing a range of skills, knowledge and attributions for promoting workforce behaviours best aligned to professional values and the characteristics of learning organisations whilst always making the safety and high quality care of patients the first concern. 

Providing opportunities for you to develop your academic literacies, including critical reading, academic and reflective writing aligned to Masters’ level requirements      

Understanding your duty of care to protect staff from work-related stress and burnout and promote wellbeing at work, and support the wellbeing and resilience of your employees and wider colleagues

Research Project Dissertation

The unit aims:

- To enhance literature searching and critical appraisal skills.
- To develop the ability to critique relevant research methodologies and study design. 

- To enable students to develop and conduct a small individual research project in their own field, either in Medical/Dental Education or in Dental Law and Ethics.

Introduction To Research Methods

This unit addresses and responds to the central question:

What is the nature of ‘evidence’ in medical & dental education as well as dental law & ethics and how does this shape approaches to research in these disciplines. 

The unit provides opportunities to:

- Explore and critique the assumptions underpinning quantitative and qualitative paradigms, judging their fitness for purpose in the context of published research and your own practice

- Design and implement a literature search strategy in order to develop your skills in literature synthesis and critique

-  Appreciate the ways which particular methodologies and methods are aligned with each other, leading you to a) adopt an informed, critical stance to published research and b) ensure careful alignment of research question, methodology and methods in your own future research and c) be able to construct a research proposal.

- Understand the importance of ethics in health-related research and key ethical issues to critically consider in your research project.